Volunteer of the Month: March 2016

Volunteer of the Month: March 2016

Jon “Rebel” Allen worked as a general contractor, doing re-models and repairs in Marin and San Francisco. Back in the late 50’s he had an apartment with with his long-time friend, and Matthew Turner volunteer Chas Denicke. Jon has done a fair bit of sailing including crewing on Hugh Jack’s 45′ Seafarer yawl. He quiped, “We didn’t take racing too seriously unless it looked like we had a chance to place and then we worked hard.” During that period Jon also worked as a “yacht janitor”, scraping, sanding and varnishing boats. Jon was devoted to his wife of 32 years, Jana and their two great kids. He’s always been into woodworking and has helped Chas build two boats. Jon claims to know a little bit about everything, which he warns, “can be dangerous”.
Jon found the Matthew Turner project when one day in May 2014, Chas said “you gotta get down here” to the ship and now he’s been on the project for over 1,000 hours. He was drawn to the Matthew Turner project out ofcuriosity and he likes to see each job, no matter how small or large, to it’s conclusion. When asked how he liked working here, Jon characteristically joked, ” It’s hard to soar with the eagles when your flapping around with a bunch of turkeys”. Jon got his nickname “Rebel” from Chas Denicke one night at a party, when after a few drinks, Jon said, “I want to do it my way, when I want to do it and with whom I want to do it!” Jon has other nicknames too including “Grumpy Gramps”, “Tijuana John” and “FNL”. I’ll bet there are good stories behind all of these. Come join Jon and some of the other volunteers by working on this historic project!